Factfile: LNER ‘B12/3’ 4‑6‑0

The Great Eastern Railway’s ‘S69’ 4-6-0 was Stephen Holden’s development of his father James’ ‘Claud Hamilton’ 4-4-0s. They may have looked like a stretched ‘Claud’ but the new locomotives, five of which were built in 1911-12, had smaller driving wheels, larger cylinders and a larger boiler, not to mention a larger cab. The locomotives looked big but they still fitted within the tight length and width restrictions imposed by the GER. Stratford works built a further 46 up to 1920. They became ‘B12’ under the LNER’S classification system. The class also spread their wings under new ownership, with several transferred to Scotland in the 1930s. The LNER also added a further ten to the fleet in 1928, this batch being built by Beyer Peacock.

‘B12s’ would also appear on former North Eastern, Great Central metals in LNER days, as well as the Midland & Great Northern and East coast Main Line post nationalization.

No. 61556 was built as GER No. 1556 in February 1921 as one of a batch of ten built by Scottish industrial giant William Beardmore for the GER. It had three numbers under LNER ownership: No. 8556 in 1924, 7470 in 1942 and 1556 in 1946. It was one of the 53 ‘B12s’ fitted with ACFI water heater (MR270), which it carried between January 1932 and May 1935. The locomotive became No. 61556 after nationalisation. It spent most of its BR career at Stratford, going to Colchester in November 1956 before moving to Norwich Thorpe in January 1957. It was withdrawn from 32A in December 1957.

No. 61572 was the only ‘B12’ to survive. It’s in full working order at the North Norfolk Railway.

The black paint has a pleasing lustre and the mixed traffic lining is crisp and accurate throughout.

The ‘B12/3’ is another example of what happens when Hornby is at the top of its game. If the only room for improvement would be bogie wheels with a slightly chunkier centre, you know you’ve got a very good model indeed.

Every new model seems to beg the question ‘is it Hornby’s best?’. The ‘B12/3’ certainly should be considered as a very strong contender. For me, I might just have to raid the piggy bank in order to see one speeding through ‘Gedney’ with the Up ‘Leicester’! (RF)

RAIL ARCHIVE STEPHENSON Post-1933 sight screens fitted LNER standard pattern buffers Footsteps without cutouts Wakefield mechanical lubricator This is roughly how the ‘B12s’ originally looked, with Belpaire fireboxes, Ger-style smokeboxes and the cab rebuilt+ sidesheets blended with the splasher. No. 8572, however, was part of the 1928 batch, built new with Lentz valve gear, that became ‘B12/2’ as opposed to the original ‘B12’ class. There was also a ‘B12/4’ subclass, which were Scottish ‘B12s’ with boilers to the original size but fitted with round-top fireboxes.

RAIL ONLINE The ‘B12/3’ was the most famous ‘B12’ sub-class. Rebuilding was masterminded by Edward Thompson and included fitting a larger, Gresley-designed boiler, round-topped firebox, new smokedoor, long-travel valves and new cabs with steel, rather than wooden, roofs, along with other minor tweaks. Some 54 ‘B12/3s’ were created between 1931 and 1944. No. 61556 was rebuilt in October 1935.

MEL HOLLEY/SR 1: No. 8572 is the North Norfolk Railway’s flagship. Built in 1928, it was condemned in late 1959. However, Norwich shedmaster and ‘B12’ enthusiast Bill Harvey discovered that the locomotive was still serviceable and adopted it as a shed pet. It was finally withdrawn in October 1961 and held aside until the M&GNJR Society raised enough money to buy it. It’s now in action in full LNER lined green.